A former TransCanada employee who worked as an engineer during construction of the Keystone Pipeline said a leak near Freeman in 2016 caused by faulty welds and lax inspections won't be the last one.

Evan Vokes was fired as a materials engineer for TransCanada in 2011 after trying to publicize what he called the company's noncompliant construction methods. He said TransCanada rushed to complete the pipeline, which compromised the structure's integrity.

Vokes said his job was to ensure that TransCanada constructed pipelines safely within Canadian National Energy Board and U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration regulations. He worked for TransCanada for five years before being fired in May 2011 after filing a formal complaint with the National Energy Board about TransCanada's failure to comply with construction and safety standards.

Some of his complaints were validated by the National Energy Board in February 2014.

“The board notes that a number of the allegations of regulatory non-compliance were identified and addressed by TransCanada only after the complainant’s allegations were made and were not proactively identified by the company’s management system,” a National Energy Board report reads, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corp. news division.

In October 2014, the Council of Canadians recognized Vokes with a Special Award for Whistleblowing. The council is a social, economic and environmental justice group. . . .

Read the rest at the paper's website.

Another construction issue appears to be related to the most recent significant spill: the installation of weights on the pipeline in 2008.

The Keystone Pipeline leak in Marshall County could have been the result of a rupture caused by mechanical damage during construction in 2008, according to a corrective action report released Tuesday by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration.

"Preliminary information indicates the failure may have been caused by mechanical damage to the pipeline and coating associated with a weight installed on the pipeline in 2008. Weights are placed on the pipeline in areas where water could potentially result in buoyancy concerns," the report reads.

At the time of the leak, which was detected the morning of Nov. 16., TransCanada was using tools to both clean and internally inspect the pipeline, according to the report.

"Both tools passed the failure site prior to the rupture without identifying any leakage from the pipeline at this location. There is no indication the tools contributed to the release," the report reads. . . .

Read the article for the details of the corrective order.

Photo: An aerial view of the leak.

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TransCanada Corp. plans to resume operation of its Keystone pipeline nearly two weeks after crews shut it down in response to an estimated 210,000-gallon oil spill in South Dakota.

The company said in a statement that it will operate the pipeline at reduced pressure beginning Tuesday. TransCanada says the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration has reviewed its pipeline repair and restart plans with no objections.

The agency didn't immediately respond to an email from The Associated Press seeking additional information.

South Dakota officials don't believe the leak polluted any surface water bodies or drinking water systems.

The company disclosed the buried pipeline leak on agricultural land in Marshall County on Nov. 16.

The company says that more than 44,000 gallons of oil had been recovered as of Sunday.

TransCanada did not specify what the reduced pressure would be or when the pipeline would return to full capacity. PHMSA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“We are communicating plans to our customers and will continue working closely with them as we begin to return to normal operating conditions,” TransCanada said in a statement. . . .

Keystone has leaked substantially more oil, and more often, in the United States than the company indicated to regulators in risk assessments before operations began in 2010, according to documents reviewed by Reuters.

The Keystone outage roiled crude oil prices on both sides of the border as market players anticipated a glut of crude building up in Alberta while inventories fell in the U.S. futures trading hub of Cushing, Oklahoma. . . .

As those projects enter service, TransCanada expects comparable earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA) to grow at an average annual rate of approximately 10 per cent between 2015 and 2020. Significantly, over 95 per cent of the Company’s EBITDA is expected to come from regulated businesses or long-term contracted assets.

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. . .for many years, the company dumped waste containing PFCs at four sites in the southeast metro, contributing to one of the most severe and pervasive groundwater contamination problems in the state, which affected the drinking water for Lake Elmo, Cottage Grove, Oakdale, Woodbury, and St. Paul Park. 3M says all the waste disposal was legal and permitted by the state at the time.

Swanson’s estimated $5 billion in total damages includes the costs of treating and replacing drinking water, the effects on fish and wildlife, and the impacts on the health of residents in the affected communities.

Several members of a House subcommittee expressed frustration that the 3M Corporation will not be paying a larger share of the cost of cleaning up a landfill that has been leeching chemical pollutants into the east metro drinking water supply.

The House Drinking Water Source Protection Subcommittee met Feb. 19 to discuss bonding recommendations for the Pollution Control Agency. Among the topics of discussion was a $15 million request for remediation work at the Washington County Landfill, which is contaminated by perfluorochemicals (PFCs) that are presumed to have been manufactured by 3M.

Gov. Tim Pawlenty has asked the Legislature to approve the request, which would be supplemented by an additional $8 million pledged by 3M, to help clean up the Lake Elmo site. Several legislators expressed concern that the state’s taxpayers are being asked to pay for more than their fair share.

“I don’t know why they (taxpayers) should be paying when they were not responsible and they didn’t know about it,” said Rep. Jean Wagenius (DFL-Mpls).

Rep. Karen Clark (DFL-Mpls) said that 3M, as the primary — possibly the sole — source of the contamination, should contribute more to the cost of the remediation.

Rep. Denny McNamara (R-Hastings) agreed that 3M should be pressured to put up additional money for the project, but also praised the company’s willingness to negotiate, as well as their overall contribution to the state’s economy over the years.

“They’ve been admitting that we’ve got to deal with this problem and I think they’re doing it in a positive way,” McNamara said.

That's nice, but probably cold comfort for district residents facing the long term consequences of the company's actions.

McNamara later signed on to DFL state rep Julie Bunn's bill, explained in the article:

Rep. Julie Bunn (DFL-Lake Elmo) has introduced a bill that would appropriate an as-yet-undetermined amount of bond money to fund alternative cleanup methods; however, Bunn said that whatever solution is ultimately chosen, action needs to be taken as soon as possible. . . .

Bunn’s bill, HF3232, awaits action by the House Environment and Natural Resources Finance Division. There is no Senate companion.

Not that it pressured 3M to pay more.

Image: Map of Senate District 54.

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TransCanada Corp’s (TRP.TO) existing Keystone pipeline has leaked substantially more oil, and more often, in the United States than indicated in risk assessments the company provided to regulators before the project began operating in 2010, according to documents reviewed by Reuters. . . .

The existing 2,147-mile (3,455 km) Keystone system from Hardisty, Alberta, to the Texas coast has had three significant leaks in the United States since it began operating in 2010, including a 5,000-barrel spill this month in rural South Dakota, and two others, each about 400 barrels, in South Dakota in 2016 and North Dakota in 2011.

Before constructing the pipeline, TransCanada provided a spill risk assessment to regulators that estimated the chance of a leak of more than 50 barrels to be “not more than once every seven to 11 years over the entire length of the pipeline in the United States,” according to its South Dakota operating permit.

For South Dakota alone, where the line has leaked twice, the estimate was for a “spill no more than once every 41 years.” . . .

Lovely. Read the rest at Reuters.

What's in a name? Historical irony

While broken promises and distrust seem new to some South Dakotans affected by the pipeline spill, others in the area of the leak have a bit more experience with this sort of thing.

Therein lies the irony of Amherst, South Dakota's name.

This tweet showed up in our social media stream over the weekend:

This is Sir Jeffery Amherst, the man who supported plans to pass out blankets infected with smallpox to Native Americans.

We wondered whether Sir Jeffery might be the namesake for Amherst, South Dakota, just northwest of TransCanada's Keystone I spill. Apparently so, in a second-hand sort of way: Amherst, South Dakota, is named after Amherst, Massachusetts, which was named after the man who was Commander-in-Chief of the British troops in America in 1758-1763.

While some journalists dispute the "smallpox in blankets" claim, documents in the British Manuscript Project, 1941-1945, undertaken by the United States Library of Congress during World War II, do support the notion that the British officer endorsed the notion of biological warfare against American Indians.

Significantly, the [Amherst College] trustee statement made no pretense of any doubt about the root of the controversy, saying, “a central reason [to dislike the symbolism of Lord Jeff] has always been his suggestion, in wartime correspondence, that smallpox be used against Native Americans.”

In this, the trustees faced the historical record: letters preserved in the British Manuscript Project, between Lord Jeff and his officers—principally Colonel Henry Bouquet—discussing plans to spread smallpox among the Indians, and “to try Every other method that can serve to Extirpate this Execrable Race.”

As recently as a month ago, commentators in major sources like the New York Times and the New York Review of Books were describing the smallpox letters as “allegations” rather than fact.

It may be ironic that the Amherst College library holds a microfilm collection of the British Manuscript Project. I researched there in 2000-2001 to compile evidence of the smallpox plan and make it available on the Internet: “Jeffrey Amherst and Smallpox Blankets.” My motivation was to make good on a promise I made to Floyd Red Crow Westerman (Dakota), who asked me to “find the proof” about the smallpox plans to counter the many commentators who denied anything like that had ever happened.

Floyd told me he wanted to make a movie that would “put a knife into America’s heart and pull it out to heal America.” I think what he meant was that facing historical truths would heal America, though this would kill its illusions. Floyd passed on before he could complete this film project, but his inspiration lives in the material available to educate those who will learn.

Amherst College was named after the Town of Amherst, which was named after the general. Lord Jeff had no connection with founding the college. Yet today, when the Amherst Trustees step into the public debate about history and historical symbols, Lord Jeff can take on a new role, as an example of the way that America—or any nation—can revisit its history: not to deny it or cover it with whitewash (which amounts to the same thing), but to face it.

The trustees’ statement reflects a lesson, which will be very difficult for some people: no nation is “exceptional” in having clean hands or a “divine” mission. Every generation has a duty—and many opportunities—to study this lesson and to find ways to leave their own history enlightened by acknowledgment of their own mistakes and misdeeds.

Tearing down a historical monument or renaming a building will be significant only if it grows from learning about history. Furthermore, the deeper and more difficult issue—what to do about the historical legacies that survive in practice—can only be approached on the basis of study and learning. Without learning and critique, removing a symbol of history becomes only a way of hiding the truth.

The late Floyd Red Crow Westerman--who spurred the lawyer's search--was born on the Lake Traverse Reservation, home of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate. The Amherst spill is about 25 miles west of the reservation.

Photo: That Keystone I oil spill near Amherst, South Dakota, third leak in the Dakotas stretch of the pipeline in seven years.

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A recent court decision affirming Winona County’s year-old ban on frac sand mining, the first of its kind in the state, has stirred interest in neighboring counties, where efforts to enact similar bans have so far foundered.

Winona County District Judge Mary Leahy ruled Nov. 17 that the county was within its authority when it created the ban, dismissing claims from the mining company, Minnesota Sands, that the ban violated its constitutional rights. The company had argued the ban was unconstitutional because it targeted industrial silica sand mining while allowing mining of sand for other purposes. . . .

The ruling drew several frac-sand mining opponents to the Houston County Board meeting last week, said Commissioner Teresa Walter. . . .

Here's the YouTube of the board meeting; click and it will forward to a Houston County resident asking the board to look at the Winona County ordinance:

“We do expect conversation,” said Walter. The county already has a strong ordinance regulating frac sand mining, Walter said, but at a citizen’s request, the County Board will now review the Winona decision and perhaps direct the county attorney to meet with Winona officials to learn more, Walter said.

Commissioner Justin Zmyewski said he expects the Winona ruling to set off discussions in Houston County and elsewhere about implementing a ban.

In early 2015, Houston County nearly became the first in the state to ban frac sand mining, with the commissioners reversing themselves at the last minute and rejecting the ban. The public hearing was raucous, and several citizens had to be forcibly removed.

“The fact of the matter is, I’ve been a big advocate for severely regulating if not banning frac sand in Houston County,” said Zmyewski.

Zmyewski and Walter were both on the board at the time of the vote, but the other three commissioners were voted out and replaced. Zmyewski said he thinks the new board would be more likely to pass a ban. . . .

Houston County Protectors have been much maligned by some land rights extremists. The land rights fringe says, “it is our land and we can do whatever we want.” Implied but never actually said is, “we can do what we want even if it decreases our neighbor’s property value, contaminates the ground water, or damages infrastructure.”

HCP has never advocated for closing down mining or even increasing regulations on mines. We all live in the county and want a robust infrastructure. Most of us live on gravel roads and have septic systems. We understand that local mining is a required activity.

The following is what we have advocated for and why:

Banning frac sand mining: Frac sand mining would cause environmental damage, tear communities apart and cost local citizens money. Most of us get our drinking water out of the sandstone aquifers that would be mined. Opening that up plus the chemicals and water use for processing, risks our drinking water. It tears down bluffs and creates open pit mines. It turns neighbor against neighbor. It wrecks roads, repaired at public expense. One need look no farther than Wisconsin to validate all these things. Fossil fuel companies are masters at getting others to pay their bills.

Allowing frac sand mining will increase the price of sand. It will increase demand and therefore price. Frackers will pay a higher price for sand so that will become the price for everyone.

Enforcement of the existing ordinance and laws: We have not pushed for new or more strict regulations. We want existing regulations enforced. The chair of the Planning Commission is on video acknowledging that the ordinance has not been enforced for over 40 years. What good are setbacks from streams, neighbor’s houses, or rules to control of noise and dust if they are ignored? Only a small percentage of mines in Houston County even have a permit.

Fair and responsive governance in Houston County: From the beginning anyone who spoke out on these issues was retaliated against. We have been ignored, had false charges brought against us, been threatened, been silenced and forced out of meetings. The most egregious example is the previous zoning administrator, who has since been replaced after an independent investigation. There were also two county commissioners now replaced, two Board of Adjustment members now replaced, and a couple of Planning Commission members that blocked enforcement and public input.

We have had some success in improving governance and accountability. Citizen input is again welcome at meetings.

Please join us in continuing to work on banning frac sand mining and getting the existing law enforced.

Photo: Land Stewardship Project led a vigorous campaign for the Winona County ordinance. Yard signs popped like shaggy manes on lawns across the county. Photo via Winona Daily News.

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. . . There are about 170 people on-site working on cleanup and remediation around the clock in 12-hour shifts. Thanksgiving meals were served for the day shift and for the overnight crew.

TransCanada spokeswoman Jacquelynn Benson says the meal provided a short but important holiday break for the workers.

The estimated 210,000-gallon leak on the Keystone Pipeline was discovered last week. TransCanada said it had recovered more than 44,000 gallons of oil as of Thursday. The cause of the leak is still being investigated. . . .

Such altruism warms the cockles of our heart, but the Canadian corporation could have done more. A Sisseton-Wahpeton tribal elder observes to Bluestem that TransCanada missed one of the biggest Thanksgiving public relations opportunities since 1621 by not inviting the Indians on the nearby Lake Traverse Reservation to break bread with the emergency workers.

Bluestem hopes TransCanada keeps a watchful eye on the remaining 165,270 gallons of oil, since we do share an aquifer with our neighbors to the west. Christmas is approaching and that's one stocking stuffer we don't need.

Very bad. And it is time for fixes and stronger assurances that another 5,000 barrels — or 210,000 gallons — of crude oil will not spill onto or into farmland, habitat, sacred land or water supplies.

. . .We should be wary of a multi-national company managing South Dakota services and land. That’s what’s happening in Marshall County now, as TransCanada, the owner of the pipeline, taps local resources to manage and control access to the spill site.

We also need to be wary of casual attitudes about serious problems.

In an online interview with TransCanada, local resident Don Tisher said: “It’s a pipe. You have leaks in your house. So why wouldn’t the pipeline leak at somewhere, some point or other? But they’ll fix it.”

Sure, TransCanada will fix the line. But shouldn’t we expect better?

The Keystone Pipeline has been in use for only seven years. And the leak near Amherst is the third in that time between southern North Dakota to southern South Dakota:

• Nov. 16: 210,000 gallons in Marshall County.

• April 2, 2016: 16,800 gallons in Hutchinson County.

• May 7, 2011: 21,000 gallons at a Sargent County pump station in North Dakota. . . .

Read the entire opinion at the paper.

Photo: A tweet by Erin Ballard at the Aberdeen American. Check out the gallery of photos at the paper.

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Surely, a bullet point in Tim Miller's resume--his recent experience with and income from his consulting firm Development Partners--can only bolster that confidence should he bump off veteran Minnesota Seventh District congressman Collin Peterson.

A lifelong entrepreneur, Miller owned a painting contracting company after college called Signature Painting, and he now runs his own consulting firm, Development Partners, that assists corporate and nonprofit entities with strategic development needs. . . .

Miller's Linked-In profile states that the Prinsburg Republican has operated the firm since 2005. However, news reports and public disclosure reports suggest that the consulting firm has been dormant for the last four or five years. He did work at a hardware store that closed its doors in Willmar.

Miller is currently employed by the University of Minnesota at the newly developed Mid-Central Research and Outreach Center at the MinnWest Technology Campus in Willmar. He also owns his own consulting business, Development Partners, that specializes in project management for agriculture and renewable energy businesses.

That description doesn't quite match the current one. We'd like to see his current client list. We're also curious what happened to that nice job at the U.

Surely this vapor business should help restore confidence in Congress should Miller win.

Photo: Tim Miller as a seasonal beet truck driver in 2016. This part of his public disclosure statement with the Clerk of the US House of Representatives is true. Via Facebook.

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A South Dakota utilities commissioner is "semi surprised and deeply disturbed" by a 210,000-gallon oil leak discovered last week from TransCanada's Keystone Pipeline in Marshall County.

Commissioner Gary Hanson was a member of the state Public Utilities Commission that in Marcy 2008 approved the permit for TransCanada Corp. to construct the Keystone Pipeline.

"This is a relatively new pipeline. It is supposed to have an operating life of more than 100 years and it was supposed to be a state-of-the-art pipeline construction. It appears that it is not," Hanson said by phone Monday.

"We've had three fairly major leaks just on the border with North Dakota and two in South Dakota in a very short period of time," Hanson said. "One might expect this to take place on a pipeline over a period of 30 or 40 years at the maximum, yet it's been fewer than 10 years."

An April 2016 Keystone Pipeline leak near Freeman spilled 16,800 gallons of oil.

"Leaks are certainly unacceptable. We understand that leaks will take place. I made this statement during the permitting process in 2007 when I was asked by the news media, I said 'yes the pipe will leak in a lifetime, one expects that a leak will probably take place in a lifetime greater than 100 years'. But certainly one does not expect three leaks to take place in less than a decade. So it is very disturbing."

A state official says TransCanada Corp. plans to test water from a drainage ditch near the Marshall County site of a 210,000-gallon oil spill from the Keystone pipeline to determine if it is polluted.

Brian Walsh, a manager at the South Dakota Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said Monday that officials don't believe the oil is polluting the ditch or leaving the spill site through it.

Walsh says there's no visible oil in the ditch. He says TransCanada environmental contractors will collect water for sampling Monday if ice in the ditch melts. . . .

Company spokesman Terry Cunha said Sunday that about 150 people are now at the site. Cunha said a gravel road has been completed to handle heavy equipment.

Cunha said a drainage ditch near the leak was protected by a berm and not polluted by the spill. State officials earlier said they did not believe the spill has polluted any surface water bodies or drinking water systems. A drainage ditch is clearly visible in aerial footage taken by DroneBase on Friday.

While the Crow Creek drainage ditch was covered by ice at the point it went under 114th Street in rural Amherst (about one or two miles downstream of the spill if our plat book is to be believed) the relatively warm weather seemed to allow water to flow under the ice when we stopped and looked. We're not sure what TransCanada was waiting for.

It was pretty warm yesterday, so we hope they got that sample, given the cold front that's come through. (It's 18F and pretty windy in Summit, on the east side of the Coteau des Prairies.

Here's the page from the SWO tribal plat book of this part of Marshall County; the Marshall County section of the Lake Traverse Reservation is east of this point. The spill is in Weston Township, southeast of the town of Amherst. The famous section of drainage ditch captured in the drone photo is the thin blue line in the lower right part of Weston Township.

Perhaps it was a lot colder closer to the spill, but courteous law enforcement personnel were not allowed to let us any closer than the nearest roadblocks.

Visiting Agency Village on the Lake Traverse Reservation Monday, Bluestem overheard three elders discuss the situation. Reflecting on the statements TransCanada had given the public via the press, they wondered whether TransCanada had started to hand out candy to the kids playing in the totally safe and contained oil spill.

Vine Deloria Jr once wrote of Indian humor [pdf], "The more desperate the problem, the more humor is directed to describe it."

Photos: Drone view of the spill (top); Our photo of the drainage ditch (middle); Western Marshall County map, Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe Lake Traverse Reservation Atlas 2017. The Atlas is available from the Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe Fish and Wildlife Office.

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. . . My daughter, Johanna, 13, and I talked a lot about deer hunting. We talked a lot about doing the "right thing." We talked about hunting safety, hunting laws, ethics and how our actions as individual hunters reflect on the whole hunting community.

We also talked a lot about using copper bullets. I explained to her how we as a family have been using copper bullets for a decade. I explained to her that before I had retired from my job as a Minnesota Department of Natural Resources conservation officer, I routinely received numerous calls on sick or dead bald eagles just after the firearms deer season. I would send these birds to the University of Minnesota's Raptor Center. The testing results were always the same: The eagle had ingested small fragments of lead and had been too sick to recover. These eagles almost always either died on their own or were euthanized.

After about five hours of talking, napping and eating almost everything we had brought along, a beautiful 8-point buck walked through our shooting lane at 50 yards. My daughter made a good shot and shortly afterwards, she was listening intently on how to field dress the buck.

We were soon done with the work and went back to the stand to watch the shooting lane for more deer activity. The first raven showed up on the gut pile in less than 30 minutes. Then four more ravens showed up. Then the magpies, followed by the gray jays, and finally by two mature bald eagles—all getting their share of the gut pile.

We watched the avian show for well over an hour. I explained to her that if we had been using lead bullets, and with her shot placement on the deer (she hit the ribs and sternum), there was little doubt that the lead bullet would have fragmented in very small pieces, only to be fed upon by every bird we had just seen at the gut pile.

My daughter always asks good questions. When she asked, "Why don't all deer hunters stop using lead bullets and replace them with copper?" I didn't have a good answer. I told her I didn't know why. Even after years of letting hunters know the dangers of lead in gut piles, showing them that copper bullets outperform most lead bullets and are now equal in price to good quality lead cartridges, hunters in huge percentages continue to use lead bullets. . . .

Read the entire column at the link above. Earlier this year, Bluestem covered the legislative debate over lead shot in a number of posts:

Bluestem thinks thirteen-year-old Johanna Birchem is asking a pretty good question, as well as being a fine shot. Perhaps hunters will change--and the legislature ban the use of lead shot on all public lands.

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Nov 19, 2017

In the company of a Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate tribal elder, Bluestem traveled today to a rural area just southeast of Amherst, South Dakota, site of the most recent oil spill on the Keystone opipeline owned by TransCanada.

We couldn't get too close to the site, as roads going close to it are blocked for two miles around by local and state law enforcement. However, we had brought binoculars and could see equipment gathered at the site, as well as a nearby work base.

Fortunately, Mike (he doesn't wish to have his last name published) had brought his tribal plat book, which includes a map of Marshall County, including its surface waters. We were able to discern that the drainage ditch that runs past the spill is part of the Crow Creek drainage system, which flows toward the James River, a tributary of the Missouri.

This creek/ditch moves away from the reservation--though Mike stressed that wouldn't be seen as positive by tribal members, who value clean water and soil for all their neighbors.

Here's an aerial view which shows how close the spill is to the ditch:

Indeed, after we returned to Summit, Dakotas for America published an instagram of the statement by Chairman David Flute of the Sisseton Wahpeton Lake Traverse Reservation, a Dakota Nation:

Flute is spot on with his observation about the interconnected nature of surface and ground water in the area, on and off the reservation. Dakota people traditionally value interconnectedness. Research about water resources bear this out: the area's bedrock aquifer is the Dakota aquifer, while the region is laced with other, glacial and outwash aquifers.

Here's Ryan Thompson's study of the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation Water Resources:

Earlier on Greenpeace's site, Sarah Sunshine Manning, an independent journalist and citizen of the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Indian Reservation in Idaho and Nevada, and a descendent of the Chippewa-Cree, and Hopi tribes who lives on the Lake Traverse Reservation, reported in Sisseton Wahpeton Tribal Members Respond to the Keystone Oil Spill:

When the recent Keystone 1 pipeline oil spill of 210,000 gallons happened near the Lake Traverse Indian Reservation in northeast South Dakota, home of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate, tribal members were immediately alarmed. Many were outraged.

After hearing of the news of the spill, a group of tribal members drove directly to the location searching for answers. The tribal radio station, KXSW, reported from on the ground in a Facebook live stream while hundreds of tribal members watched nervously. “I feel sick,” one tribal member wrote in the comments of the video livestream. . . .

Mike Peters, a Sisseton Wahpeton Tribal Member, lives in the Enemy Swim district near the western border of the reservation, approximately 20 miles from the site of the oil spill. Like many tribal members, Peters was incensed to hear of an oil spill so near his home.

“My greatest concern is the safety of my family, my kids, and grandkids, and really all the people in this area no matter what race or color, because we all need clean water to live,” Peters said. “The water and the land is important to us because everything has a spirit, and when anyone’s spirit is covered in oil it saddens all of us.

In 2008, the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate were plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Trans Canada, along with the Rosebud Sioux Tribe, the Santee Sioux Tribe of Nebraska, and the Yankton Sioux Tribe. Their goal: to protect their homelands and their communities from the devastation of oil spills like the one that just happened. In 2009, the lawsuit was dismissed for “lack of jurisdiction.”. . .

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Local lawmakers could be without the staff who help them with day-to-day operations, research and legislation by early next year.

“We have the money to get to May,” said Rep. Dean Urdahl, R-Acton Township. “But then there is no more looking under the couch cushions for change.”

The issue has arisen following the Minnesota Supreme Court decision Thursday to uphold Gov. Mark Dayton's line-item veto of the state House of Representatives and Senate budget. The veto was a last-minute bid to force GOP lawmakers to reverse course on tax cuts contained in the tax bill. . . .

“Now, we still won't have any money,” Newman said. “We will have to do something back in session … the plan would be to pass the bill again. I can't tell you how that will turn out.”

He estimated about 200 employees work with legislators at the state Capitol.

“There are a lot of people who work in the Legislature between the House and Senate,” he said, adding the staff include partisan and nonpartisan staff.

There are also staff members such as maintenance workers and janitors.

Bluestem offers a jar of our famous Frangelico raw honey apple butter for a picture of Senator Scott Newman pushing a broom like an honest custodian.

On his way to a meeting with his legislative assistant when he spoke to the Leader Friday, Urdahl noted another change in effect due to the line-item veto.

“I'm not getting per diem today,” he said. “I'm not getting mileage. At this point, all the traveling I do, (in addition to) four of the last six days I've gone to the Cities, it's all on my dime.

“If this goes on, when we get to the part where we don't have staff, then it affects how we can serve the people even more. There may be legislators who choose not to do things because they won't have their expenses reimbursed.”

Bluestem modestly proposes that the lawmakers quit worrying and learn to appreciate lobbyists, many of whom are employed by stakeholders who write the bills anyway.

We saw committee chairs last spring turn the presentation of new bills over to lobbyists from the Mn Chamber and other business groups, so nothing would really change in terms of the end product.

Indeed, the legislature would not only save money while boosting transparency, but we think this totally would be a splendid way for the Republicans to avoid negotiating with the governor and agencies at all.

Photo: Senator Scott Newman, via twitter.

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On Nov. 17, Minnesota District Court Judge Mary Leahy dismissed with prejudice pro-frac sand interests’ claims in their attempt to undo the Winona County, Minn., frac sand ban. The judge ruled that the county acted fully within its authority in passing this ordinance to protect public health, safety and general welfare from industrial mining operations.

This ruling confirms that in passing the ban, the Winona County Board was acting precisely as government should. Elected officials listened to the will of the public, who called for this corporate exploitation to be prevented, and then acted decisively to protect the common good for both people and the land. The hills, bluffs, farms and waters of Winona County are safe from industrial frac sand mining, thanks to the bold leadership of the people who love them.

This lawsuit, brought by two of the largest law firms in Minnesota, was yet another corporate attack on democracy. But this victory is further proof that organized people acting on our values can prevail against corporate power, and can protect the land and our communities’ health, safety and quality of life from destruction for the sake of profits.

Photo: LSP led a vigorous campaign for the ordinance. Yard signs popped like shaggy manes on lawns across the county. Photo via Winona Daily News.

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A Native American tribe in South Dakota is on edge following a large oil leak from TransCanada's Keystone pipeline.

TransCanada said in a statement Thursday 795,000 litres of oil leaked from an underground section of its Keystone pipeline near Amherst, S.D., about 64 kilometres west from the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate of the Lake Traverse Reservation.

Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate tribal chairman David Flute said his community is concerned the leak, the largest by the Keystone pipeline in South Dakota to date, could pollute the area's aquifer and waterways.

"We are keeping a watchful eye and an open ear," said Flute.

"The concern is at a high level, but there is really nothing we can do." . . .

The spill occurred in the same county as part of the Lake Traverse Reservation.

"We are concerned that the oil spill is close to our treaty land, but we are trying to stay positive that they are getting the spill contained and that they will share any environmental assessments with the tribal agency," said Dave Flute, tribal chairman of the Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate.. . .

We'll be keeping an eye out for news about the spill.

Images: Top: The oil "release" area. Aerial view tweeted by TransCanada. Lovely. Bottom: Where the spill is on the map. Via TransCanada.

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Our objection to the effort stemmed from the deep involvement of North American High Speed Rail, aka the Minnesota Corridor, aka Zombie Ziprail, the plan to build a private high speed rail from the south metro to Rochester.

The project met with widespread opposition in the flyover zone where residents not only would not benefit from the train, but could have their property seized for private gain via eminent domain under Minnesota law.

Screengrab: North American High Speed Rail Group director Wendy Meadley was on the board for the Expo 2023 proposal. Google cache, today.

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In a recent letter to House members, Speaker Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, said that while the Legislature’s budget remains in legal limbo, lawmakers will receive no per diem allowances.

In addition, he said, as of Oct. 6 House members will receive no reimbursements for mileage or business travel, communication, out-of-state travel not previously approved by the speaker or travel within their districts. Also, he said, committee budget spending is suspended.

Daudt blamed the policy change on the loss of the House’s ongoing appropriation for the coming fiscal year. Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed the Legislature’s entire 2018-19 budget in late May.

While his veto was found unconstitutional by Ramsey County District Court Chief Judge John H. Guthmann on July 19, the Supreme Court ruled that Dayton had legally used the veto. However, it declined in its Sept. 8 order to rule on the spending impasse and instead sent the parties to mediation—which quickly collapsed. The budgetary part of their drama remains unresolved. . . .

The company hires attorneys to do investigations, training and coaching, at an hourly rate of $275. At the time NeuVest was hired, School Board Chairman Scott Swanson said he had no idea how much the investigation would cost. Turns out, it cost $56,734. . . .

Phil Stumpe, a parent, member of Concerned Citizens of Shakopee and one of many Shakopee citizens who has closely monitored the budget shortfall and resulting fallout, said the amount of information redacted from the report “has the appearance of a continued pattern of non-transparency.” He questions the need for the report, given that Thompson resigned, the police and FBI are investigating and the information was already available to the school board.

“The $275 per hour on a 364 page report could have been used in a more useful manner if the school board had asked more questions instead of blindly accepting or approving recommendations, stopped socializing with the superintendent and held the superintendent accountable with checks and balances,” he said, referring to employee advice in the report. . . .

We're musing along similar lines. Perhaps if Representative Cornish possessed the self-control to keep news of his raging boners to himself while in the workplace, Daudt and the Minnesota House wouldn't have to be searching for spare change under the couch cushions to pay this firm at a time when reps can't get their cable and internet paid.

. . .this is not a criminal matter. Rather, what’s at stake in these instances are the preservation of public trust in an institution of authority and every district’s right to effective representation within that institution. The accusations against these two lawmakers are backed by enough credible evidence to have hobbled their effectiveness. Lawmaking is a relationship-based activity. A reputation for making repeated and unwanted sexual advances is toxic to the working relationships with both men and women that legislators need in order to represent their districts well.

Schoen has been in office for more than four years; Cornish, for nearly 15. That’s long enough for both of them to know that they can’t soon recover the trust that effective legislative service requires. They should allow their districts’ voters to choose someone who can.

The House is broke. Cornish should head home.

Photo: Rep. Tony Cornish.

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Something in the veteran outdoors copy caught our eye: the spectacle of farmers complaining about guvmint overreach into water quality issues, while those same grain farmers collected nice checks from the United States Department of Agriculture. The poor things! (Most farmers are in compliance).

Some farmers are taking their gripes out on hunters, believing hunters' interests in pheasant habitat, and not the public's aspiration for cleaner lakes and rivers, are what's behind the governor's desire to improve state waters. . . .

Fast forward now to the Governor’s Pheasant Opener a few weeks ago in Marshall, in advance of which some area farmers refused to accommodate hunting land requests by local organizers.

Upset about the buffer law, the farmers didn’t want to participate in Dayton’s namesake event.

About the same time, signs reading, “No Hunting Due to New Buffer Law. Contact Your Governor With Questions” sprouted up at the end of some farmers’ driveways.

Scott Gillespie of Grace- ville posted his 2,000 acres of corn and soybeans with the signs, and also has aired buffer complaints on Facebook in a series of videos. Gillespie farms in Big Stone and Traverse counties. His brother, Curt, also farms in the area, as do his cousins, Kyle Gillespie and Terry Gillespie.

Scott Gillespie has a lot of problems with the buffer law, as does Kyle. Examples: The map defining “public waters” (and therefore requiring buffers) is incorrect, Scott says. The buffer law is more about increasing pheasants than cleaning up dirty water, Kyle says. And, according to Scott, the law “was forced through in backdoor meetings. And the law is being implemented poorly.”

But the Gillespies’ big complaint is this: They think the government is “taking” their land. “And I have a real problem with that,” Scott said. “This is private property.”

A look at the Environmental Working Group's Farm Subsidy Database, recently updated to include payments through 2016, shows that the Gillespies might complain about regulation, but don't have a problem collecting government checks. Indeed, we're wondering how much of those government dollars helped print those signs and create those videos.

Here are the dollar figures for the Gillespies (we use the plural since that was in Anderson's copy) from the online database:

IMO, ANY business that complains about gov't involvement shouldn't take government subsidies. Can't have it both ways. The law truly should state -- for Farmers that don't ditch, tile, no need for buffer strip.

in addition, Agriculture is still exempt from clean water rules set forth by EPA.

** Not anti farming at all, just looking at the big picture. Very anti crony capitalism and corporate/personal welfare. **

There are plenty of responsible farmers, but the "property taking" argument falls short when one factors in the CRP reimbursement for the idled buffer strip land, the insurance and other subsidies farmers receive, and the adverse impact on water quality. The point farmers should fear is that the only real effective way to minimize nitrate runoff is to establish holding ponds (ie swamps) before the water runs into the ditches, and that cost would make buffer strip costs look like chump change.

Trib should have gone to the federal EWG farm subsidy web site and listed the subsidy $ amounts some of these folks get . Big $$$$

and

The federal farm program , the gift that keeps on giving. And a program that the Govt thinks everyone succeeds, regardless of some bad business decisions by many.

The most recent comments are posted at the top of the section, but Jam started the discussion out with this:

How did the farmer go broke? Someone nailed his mailbox closed.

It's not as simple as that, given that many sections of the farming industry don't receive subsidies, but the joke's an old one.

Photo: The loudest hungry kitty babies get the milk.

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Nov 10, 2017

A letter-to-the-editor about the recent elections comes our way from League of Women Voters Minnesota President Terry Kalil, a resident of the Detroit Lakes area, came our way:

This week we learned of so many firsts across this country, firsts that give me hope that we, the people, have a greater understanding of what it means to be an American. A New York cab driver told me a few weeks ago that, “this was not the America he immigrated to 30 years ago.”

I wonder what he’d say now about the Liberian immigrant elected mayor of Helena, Montana, defeating the long-term incumbent who opposed refugee resettlement? Or the transgender woman who was elected to the state legislature, defeating the incumbent who pushed a “bathroom bill.”

A Sikh was elected mayor of Hoboken. The first openly transgender African American woman was elected to the Minneapolis City Council. A Lesbian won the mayor’s seat in Seattle. A woman is the new mayor of Provo. St. Paul has its first African American mayor. Charlotte has its first African American female mayor.

The list goes on and on to include a Vietnamese immigrant woman and two Latina women elected to the Virginia legislature, gay and transgender school board members, three African Americans being elected mayor of three towns in Georgia. A Sudanese woman elected to an Iowa City Council.

And, my personal favorite, a young woman of color defeated the county commissioner who made headlines in January with his comment about the Women’s March when he wondered, “will the women be home in time to make him dinner?”

How many more years will it take before the headlines aren’t about “firsts” and labels? This list seems to indicate that we, the people, are instead choosing leaders who best represent our future and not our present. This is the vision upon which the nonpartisan League of Women Voters was founded 98 years ago. We invite you to join us in our advocacy and voter education work.

Bluestem hopes these sorts of changes, rather than old-school bad behavior, continue to be a major part of our political narrative--as much as we hope to hear news of bad actors' departure and their toxic culture from the political stage.

Photo: New Minneapolis City Council members Andrea Jenkins and Phillipe Cunningham, who ran on issues but received national attention as winning transgender candidates.

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On Monday at SMSU, Virji will speak again about his experience; he'll be joined again by Rev. Mandy France, a Lutheran pastor.

Image: The poster for the event.

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Nov 07, 2017

At the last meeting, council member Jeff Goerger introduced resolution "in support of a just and welcoming community" to refute Johnson's resolution calling for a moratorium on refugee resettlement. That resolution passed on a 5-1 vote, with Johnson opposing.

Council member George Hontos was absent at the Oct. 23 meeting, but spoke about both resolutions Monday. He also seconded Johnson's resolution, which allowed it be discussed by the City Council.

Hontos said he is disappointed council members have not wanted to talk about the impact of refugees in the community. He also thinks Lutheran Social Service and St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis should have done a better job communicating with the City Council.

"It is time we begin discussing in an open and sensible way what role us elected officials need to have," Hontos said.

Despite Hontos' dismay for how the resolutions were introduced, he did not support Johnson's resolution, which he called "misguided and inappropriate."

After Johnson's resolution failed, Goerger made a motion to reaffirm the council's position "in support of a just and welcoming community." That motion passed on a 6-1 vote, with Johnson opposing.

Perhaps the problem isn't "not talking about" refugee resettlement, but the notion that the only conclusion to such a discussion would be a moratorium.

Seems to Bluestem that St. Cloud (and Minnesota as a whole) have been talking about refugee resettlement for some time now--and coming up with answers that those fearful of new Americans simply don't like.

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For area leaders, it's an open secret — the moratorium councilman Jeff Johnson is proposing to halt refugee resettlement could not be enforced.

It would — if anything — be a symbolic resolution, much like the resolution St. Cloud City Council passed two weeks ago that proclaims the city is "a just and welcoming community."

St. Cloud Mayor Dave Kleis has said multiple times the city does not have a role in refugee resettlement and that no city money goes towards those programs.

And now joining the conversation is state Rep. Jim Knoblach, R-St. Cloud, who said refugee resettlement is "a federal issue over which the state and local governments have no effective power."

Knoblach also cited two cases where states have sued the federal government in recent years over refugee resettlement — and lost. In those cases, it was determined the authority to control immigration is vested solely in the federal government, and that while the federal government is required to consult with state and local governments, there is no standard for who it consults with and how often the consulting is done. . . .

Knoblach also called for residents to work together, much like the City Council's approved resolution in support of a just and welcoming community. That resolution says "St. Cloud is welcoming to all residents without regard to age, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, race, ethnicity, religion, or country of origin, and we renew our commitment to foster a community in which all people have the right to pursue life, liberty and happiness."

Read the entire article at the St. Cloud Times.

Photo: St. Cloud City Council member Jeff Johnson.

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